» Australia, asylum seekers and the solutionPlusOne

The decades running debate on implementation, policy change, change of government and new policy exploration, high-court scuttling of policy and the opposition’s offer of assistance in formulating new policy, ignores the real solution for dealing with asylum seekers who arrive on our northern shores.

The issue is not one of of where to process this comparatively small tide of people, nor is it a question of should we be accepting what the naysayers regard as a great flood of illegals trying to jump the queue. The willingness of both sides of politics to accept 4,000 processed immigrants from Malaysia clearly shows we have the capacity to accept those who want to come and who meet the criteria.

The really issue is one of storage. Where to store people while their applications are processed. The reason for even needing to look at overseas alternatives is merely brought about by the fact that all of the detentions centres run by the Australian Government (and not just this government, but its predecessor as well) are overcrowded and prison-like.

The solution is quite simple. Speed up the processing.

There are arguments that the processing checks the bona-fides of the individuals as to their risk of torture or death if returned to their homeland. A counter argument can be put forward that if the number of staff assigned to processing was increased by several hundred, then the intelligence-gathering capability would also be enhance, thus contributing to a more efficient processing methodology.

The fear of allowing potential terrorists into the country is also unfounded. The ability of any terrorist organisation to provide a not only plausible but also totally non-transparent identity is easily achieved. The time frames adopted by terrorist organisations are long, meaning it would not be hard for a potential terrorist to adopt and live the new identity for a decade or more before ‘infiltrating’ our country via the risky sea voyage to our north-western outposts.

Time spent ferreting around in their homelands while leaving asylum seekers festering provides a breeding ground for contempt and frustration. This could in fact do more to harbour a propensity for revenge than any desire by militant groups to plant seed terrorism cells in Australia.

So lets hope all parts of politics can recognise they are focusing on the wrong problem. Where to store people is not the issue, but developing a system of timely processing and accepting or returning people based on the criteria of the policy, is.